Tell Us The Album That Changed Your Life

By Daniel Martinez & Mike Roe

Published Dec 6, 2022 6:00 AM

A woman in a cardigan holds a pen, holding open a gatefold vinyl record album with her other hand. She looks at the camera. A young woman stands behind her, near a pile of record albums. A sign in the background reads "You lucky video owner you." An obscured sign behind the woman indicates that Kate Bush has a new album.

What’s the album that changed your life? That’s the question KPCC’s AirTalk asked listeners and NPR music critic Ann Powers last month. You can share your own answer below.

One of Powers' picks: Kate Bush’s The Dreaming, which she calls “wild and experimental.”

“For me, it showed what a woman could do as an artist,” Powers said. “You could defy every stereotype, every limit. And that just changed my life, and opened up my own work … as well as my listening practices.”

Here are some of the other albums she chose:

1999 by Prince
Achtung Baby by U2
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill by Lauryn Hill
Bryter Layter by Nick Drake
Sound & Color by Alabama Shakes

Two songs that particularly struck her: “If I Die Young” by the Band Perry and “Sprained Ankle” by Julien Baker.

A large image of a man with a slight smile is projected behind a stage. On the stage, you can see a silhouetted camera crew, a drum set, and a small group of men in suits. Below them on the ground level are a variety of people sitting and standing.

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We also heard from listeners on AirTalk; here are some of the comments they shared with us:

Eamon in Inglewood: “I’m from the West of Ireland. It rains there a lot, it doesn’t rain here. Hotel California [by the Eagles], even the album cover is spellbinding. The last line of the last song on the album says, ‘Call someplace Paradise, kiss it Goodbye.’ As you know, Paradise, California was involved in that awful fire a couple years ago. I always think about that line.”

Evelyn in Beverly Hills: “If you look past some of the language and examine the narrative message. I think [Tupac Shakur] was the greatest hip-hop artist of all time — far, far above Eminem. Better Dayz, the two-part album, is my personal favorite. It hits on not only the struggle of the Black community, but on the hopes of the future. Tupac delved into the real message and meaning of the hip-hop subculture. All Eyez On Me is another one. 2Pacalypse Now. … It’s hard for me to place which [of his albums] is my most life-changing. I was very much touched by his identification with his mother. I also admired how he addressed the issues of the youth at that time. He looked at the younger generations, and how things were affecting them, and spoke to that.”

A man on the left sits on a stool and holds a microphone; he has wild blonde fuzzed-out hair. To his right, a man with an acoustic guitar stands behind a mic stand. There are stage lights illuminating them from behind.

Here at LAist/KPCC, we asked our own staff about the albums that affected them. Some of the picks by folks around here:

Black Celebration by Depeche Mode
Continuum by John Mayer
Live Through This by Hole
In the Court of the Crimson King by King Crimson
Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too by New Radicals
Sounds of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel
Whitney: The Greatest Hits by Whitney Houston

Now's your chance to share your own answer.

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